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HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
1
May 2010
HP Scitex
LX600, LX800
Formerly known as the
HP Designjet L65500
HP Latex Ink
Printer Evaluation
Nicholas Hellmuth
Designjet
L65500
HP HP
Designjet
L65500
Latex
Printer
Evaluation
Latex
Ink Ink
Printer
Evaluation
Contents
HP Designjet L65500 at ISA 2009
Please Note
Introduction
1
THE BASICS
2
WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER?
5
PURCHASING
6
STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER
6
ROLL-FED ASPECTS
7
HEATERS & DRYER
8
UPGRADES, Future Improvements?
10
OPERATING THE PRINTER
10
CONSTRUCTION (BUILD QUALITY)
11
AESTHETICS
11
SET-UP OF THE PRINTER: PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
12
INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER
12
This report has not been licensed to any printer
manufacturer, distributor, dealer, sales rep, RIP
company, media or ink company to distribute.
TECH SUPPORT & WARRANTY
13
PRINTHEAD Technology
13
PRINTHEAD DPI & Print Quality
14
So if you obtained this from any company, you have a
pirated copy.
PRINTHEAD Banding Issues
14
PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy
14
SAFETY CONCERNS
14
INKS
16
INK Cost
17
INK Color Gamut
17
INK: Miscellaneous
17
INK: Appearance
18
INK: Longevity
18
To obtain a legitimate copy, which you know is the
complete report with nothing erased or changed,
and hence a report with all the original description
of pros and cons, please obtain your original and full
report straight from
SUBSTRATES
18
SUBSTRATES: Issues
18
SUBSTRATES: Image Quality
19
APPLICATIONS: printshop owner questions?
19
www.large-format-printers.org .
Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications
23
RIP SOFTWARE
23
PRODUCTIVITY & ROI (Return on Investment)
24
ADVERTISING CLAIMS: Anything Misleading? Any Hype? 24
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
25
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS
26
SUMMARY: Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications
26
Pros
27
Plus or minus, depending on how you weigh the situation
27
Conclusions
27
Downsides
28
Commentary
28
Also, since this report is frequently updated, if you
got your version from somewhere else, it may be an
obsolete edition. FLAAR reports are being updated
all year long, and our comment on that product may
have been revised positively or negatively as we
learned more about the product from end users.
Your only assurance that you have a complete and
authentic evaluation which describes all aspects
of the product under consideration, benefits as
well as deficiencies, is to obtain these reports
directly from FLAAR, via
www.wide-format-printers.NET.
Copyright 2010 FLAAR
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
1
Introduction
I thank the many individuals who assisted me in learning about latex ink and the L65500 printer. I have interviewed printshop owners and managers who use the HP L65500 daily. I have also interviewed people elsewhere
in the industry to see and hear is each segment of the industry saying, or asking, about HP latex ink. So we have
learned how printshop managers like, or dislike, the printer when it is unpacked and put to work.
Has HP influenced my comments? Yes, of course. HP flew me to Israel to be trained in this technology months
before it was even mentioned elsewhere. I was deep in HP world headquarters R&D rooms, again, long before
the printer was readily available.
Then there was a second trip to Barcelona (world headquarters of HP wide-format) to learn how the printer was
doing out in the real world. Two managers of large printshops were flown in to speak with us.
I will compliment HP in that these two managers were not scripted. They answered from their own experience.
They did not read some silly PR release. But equally obviously, you knew before they appeared that they would
like this printer. And that is the core of the message of this evaluation: HP latex ink is great if this is precisely the
range of ink and range of media that you and your customers are interested in.
But is this an appropriate printer for a general printshop? Can this replace solvent ink, much less even consider
replacing UV-cured ink? These were the crucial questions the last 18 months. But since recently, there has
arisen a totally unexpected dilemma: the advent, and advance, of another completely different resin ink: Sepiax.
And on this aspect I ran into the owner who had bought the HP 104” latex printer early on. He likes HP equipment
and has almost a million dollars worth.
Did he like the latex ink ? And after he bought the HP latex printer did he switch to Sepiax ink? This will be answered throughout this evaluation as well as in other upcoming FLAAR Reports. We have been very busy these
last two years.
So the advantage of HP flying me to three training sessions is that this allowed me to meet print shop owners
that were content with the printer, the ink, the media it printed on, and with HP service. They were satisfied. If HP
had not provided this training, I would have been at the mercy of the rest of the world, the people that thought
eco-green was great and without further thought simply bought the printer.
Then reality set in, quickly.
So this FLAAR Report is based on two years of research. It would be a challenge to find another other resource
that has looked at latex ink from both sides.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
2
THE BASICS
1. Brand name, model?
HP Designjet L65500 since launch at
DRUPA 2008. The name was changed
to HP Scitex LX600 at IPEX in May
2010. This is the original 104” model.
The 126” version (3.2 meters) is the HP
Scitex LX800.
2. What is the nature of the company?
Is this company the manufacturer,
distributor, or rebranding?
HP conceives, designs and engineers
all printers in their own facilities (Barcelona, Israel, Minneapolis, San Diego
and elsewhere). The printers tend to be
contract manufactured (Malasia, Singapore, etc).
HP Designjet L65500 at SIGN Africa 2009.
3. What other printers are the same or similar chassis from this manufacturer or distributor? Is
this same printer available elsewhere under a different name?
The 42” and 60” latex ink printers are on the chassis of the HP Designjet Z6100. That platform and the industrial-strength 104” latex ink printer are quite distinct. The L65500 model is the proverbial built-like-a-tank.
HP Designjet L65500 at Sign and Graphic Imaging, Dubai, 2009.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
3
4. What other printers of other brands are comparable?
No other company has shown even a concept-car or other prototype for any printer that can even remotely
compete with any of the HP latex ink printers. Encad VinylJet failed (not enough substrated would work with
that DuPont ink and Encad did not have the investment capital or clout to be successful.
Staedtler Lumocolor failed a bit because of the chemistry of the ink but mainly because of the chemistry of the
company’s posture towards printer manufacturers. No major manufacturer was willing to take on their ink as a
result of industry politics.
The alcohol-based ink of Kiian Manoukian seems to have failed. Bio-solvent ink is not even used by its own developer (InkWare, now part of EFI and across the street from VUTEk). So the only ink that has been shown to
the public that might compete with latex ink is Sepiax. This ink is now being rolled out, one continent at a time.
Sepiax has a much more realistic relationship with the rest of the industry than did Staedtler.
Roland and Mutoh claim they have “things in the pipeline” but neither is an ink company and my sources state
that indeed nothing is seriously underdevelopment. The competitors assumed latex ink would flop and did not
prepare any ink that could compete with it. Epson has done more with innovative inks than Roland or Mutoh
(the silver effects ink of Roland is not their ink, it is probably from Eckart).
So again, until FESPA 2010, there is nothing to compete with HP latex ink, especially not in an industrialstrength printer chassis such as the L65500.
5. How does this model compare with comparable previous printers?
This model is unique and built from the ground up to handle the heaters necessary to cure latex ink. You could
probably find features based on experience from Scitex Vision, but as far as I can see, the development area
was largely in Barcelona.
6. When and where was this model first introduced?
The HP L65500 was officially launched at DRUPA 2008 but was shown before then to hundreds of people (under NDA) at well organized PR events in Israel and then later in Barcelona.
Several new features were shown at Sign UK 2010. Then the 126” model, the HP Scitex LX800 was launched
at IPEX 2010.
Dr. Hellmuth has flown to Spain twice and attended two Latex ink presentation sessions in HP wide-format printer world
headquarters in Barcelona.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
4
Nicholas inspecting the HP L65500 at ISA 2009.
Nicholas was inspecting the HP L65500 several times during his two weeks at DRUPA (fortunately no other trade show organizer has anything as unrealistic as DRUPA’s excessive two weeks).
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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7. Is this mature, or still in alpha-stage, beta-stage?
The HP L65500 is now mature; the L25500 is still new but was launched during autumn 2009. The HP Scitex
LX600 is primarily a change of name for the same structure (though obviously some aspects are improved
now). The wider version, 3.2 meters, the LX800, is still new.
8. What other costs are involved?
Two other costs are involved: rewiring your building since this printer requires sophisticated electrical power.
Then the other cost would be your electrical bill to cure the ink, and then your air-conditioning bill to cool down
the room.
9. Do you need an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)?
In some countries a UPS unit may be useful. Just realize that it may take an industrial strength UPS unit to
handle the needs of this printer (but you would certainly not want to run the printer’s heaters with any UPS unit,
even an industrial strength one).
WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER?
10. What is the market that the
manufacturer has designed this
printer for?
This printer is designed for signage, but
the quality is good enough for additional
applications such as interior décor such
as wallpaper (but not giclee; there is a
subtle difference).
11. Are other markets buying this
printer that were unexpected?
Many printshops are buying this L65500
for exhibition banners and signage and
vehicle wrap. Since HP latex ink is dry
out of the printer, it can be laminated immediately. This is a notable advantage
over solvent inks (which require out-gassing for 12 to 24 hours after printing.
HP Designjet L65500 at SIGN Africa 2009
There are also people buying this printer
to print on polyester and those fabrics for which this printer’s feeding system and heat allow.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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PURCHASING
12. Are dealers national (most companies) or regional (Roland allows a dealer to operate only
within a limited regional area)? Does a buyer have any choice in dealers?
Dealers in US are local, regional, and often national. This situation varies in other world regions.
STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER
13. Is this printer made originally as a latex ink printer?
This is not a solvent printer that has been jerry-rigged to handle latex ink curing. The printer probably shares
some features with HP Scitex solvent printers, but latex ink has so many special requirements that it works best
to be designed from the ground up specifically for latex ink. This is the logical reason why this 104” model originally cost over $100,000.
In distinction, the 42” and 60” are a retrofitted HP Z6100 chassis, so quite different (this keeps their cost down
significantly).
14. If there is a vacuum function?
Yes.
15. In how many sections?
All sections are controlled as one section.
16. Can you turn one or the other section(s) off and on?
No, all one series.
17. Just Off and On? Or variable?
Adjustable.
18. What are the features of the platen area?
This is a unique platen: has ridges across the vacuum area to prevent media from sticking. Probably in case of
heat. Platen heat is 60 degrees C (it is post-heading that is 93 to 100 degrees C). In the platen area 50 to 70 is
the usual range. 60 is average.
19. Are their edge guards (media clamps)? At left, or at right, or both?
Yes and yes.
20. Can you move the left guard, or the right guard, or both?
Yes, but the operator seemed to struggle a bit when moving them.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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21. Does the printer have leveling supports? How many,
and how strong?
I was told there are three leveling stands. That is an unusual
number, Usually a big printer will have four or six or eight. But
HP knows engineering so if there are only three there is good
reason.
22. Does the printer have wheels? Are they robust?
Four wheels.
Wheels on the HP Designjet L65500
ROLL-FED ASPECTS
23. How is roll media fed? Pinch roller against grit roller?
The User Manual best explains how the media is fed: “The substrate is moved forwards by the drive roller motor…” (p. 17). But actually both the front spindle and the rear spindle both have motors.
24. Are the pinch rollers same size as grit rollers, or smaller?
The pinch rollers act on a “mail roller” rather than a grit roller. Grit rollers would be of uncertain reliability on a
104” width. So this uses a more professional tension system, but also does have pinch collers too.
25. How is the roll held at the feeding position? On a spindle? On a saddle?
OId cores (or cores damaged in shipment and handling) tend to be a problem on a spindle. On 5 meter wide machines the material tends to be banner material so there are not as many issues on a saddle. Paper-like media
may sag in a saddle. “In general, if you hang a roll on a spindle, this is best” (observations by Mutoh managers
at European factory).
26. How is the roll media handled at feeding position? For example, is there a dancer bar?
No dancer bar.
27. How is the roll media handled at take-up position? For example, is there a dancer bar?
No dancer bar at take-up position either.
28. What is the media path?
Basic time-proven media path at the back. At the top and front the path is determined by the needs of curing (the
intense heat and how much time the substrate needs to receive this curing heat).
29. Front loading, back loading?
Back loading.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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30. Is there a cutter? Is it manual or automatic.
A cutter on-board would not be expected on this kind of a production printer.
31. Is there a “knife guide,” a slot where you can draw your knife down and across the width of
the substrate?
In general, detritus from cutting anywhere near the platen can be a factor in printheads clogging.
Back part of the HP Designjet
L65500 at Sign and Graphic
Imaging, Dubai, 2009.
HEATERS & DRYER
32. What about heater or dryer? Is there a pre-heater, platen heater and post-heater all three, or
just one, or two? How many heaters does this printer have?
This printer has two integrated heaters.
33. Where are the heaters located? Is heater on top of, or under, the media?
Front and print area.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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34. What is average monthly electric bill?
It would be helpful if there were a before and after figure on the electrical bill.
35. What about fans?
There are 21 fans across the front.
36. Is an auxiliary heater or fan offered, or needed?
No extra heater is needed at the front. HP and Scitex have engineered plenty of curing temperature within the
printer itself.
Fans on the HP Designjet L65500, photograph taken at FESPA Amsterdam, 2009.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
10
UPGRADES, Future Improvements?
37. What features have been added, or changed since the printer first appeared?
The model that most people have is the original model. At ISA 2010 there were additional features, so clearly
HP has a forward path for this platform.
OPERATING THE PRINTER
38. Can the operator manage print jobs via the Internet with this printer?
If you have Onyx RIP you can manage jobs through the Internet, or at least see what the printer status is.
39. What is the level of ease of use? Can anyone use this printer or do they have to be trained and
certified? What about daily and periodical routine maintenance? Is the printer user-friendly?
“Simple to run. But, tough to set up new media. This requires skill. Learning how to test new media takes the
longest of any task with this printer.
40. Do you get an LCD screen in the printer or a real computer monitor? How big is the screen
or monitor?
As with all old-fashioned water-based and solvent printers, you get a tiny LCD monitor fixed into the front
panel. ColorSpan was one of the few companies to have a nice-sized LCD monitor on their printer. But you will
tend to run other functions from your RIP and for that you will need a separate computer anyway, and this will
have its own separate monitor which hopefully will be a reasonable size.
41. Is the position of the LCD screen or monitor user-adaptable?
Not really.
42. How many operators or operator assistants does this printer require?
Needs only one operator except to load and unload a
complete roll. For that two people would normally be
required unless there were a wheeled loading system
to roll the roll up to the printer.
43. Where does the operator stand or sit?
Front right.
44. What is at either end?
Ink is at the left, but more at the top and not really at
the end.
45. Is a foot pedal included (for operating
aspects of the printer)?
I have not noticed any good pedal.
LCD screen on the HP Designjet L65500.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
11
CONSTRUCTION (BUILD QUALITY)
46. What is the solid-ness of the construction of the outer body? Is it plastic? Metal? Heavy
gauge?
The core structure is heavy gauge metal. The ends of the machine are rigid plastic. The 42” and 60” versions are
based on the largely plastic Z6100 chassis and are quite distinctive. But the 104” version is no wimp.
47. Is there both a front hood and a back hood?
The back hood does not open.
48. The hood, is it strong, or cheap plastic?
Economical plastic here, but the rest of the printer is plenty strong.
49. Does the hood have a frame?
Not fully.
50. Does the printer wobble back and forth when printing?
Does wobble a bit, but nowhere near as bad as the 3.2 meter Gandinnovations solvent printer whose monitor
wobbled so much by the start and stop of the carriage acceleration that it would have made an operator dizzy if
they tried to look at the screen.
HP Designjet L65500 at Sign and
Graphic Imaging, Dubai, 2009.
AESTHETICS
51. How would you describe the design of the printer?
Solid.
52. Can you easily tell which is the “front” and which is the “back’?
Yes.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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SET-UP OF THE PRINTER: PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
53. What are the electrical requirements of this printer? This means, will the building have to be
rewired.
Three phase: 200 to 220 VAC (+/- 10%); 380 to 415 VAC (-10% + 6%); 50/60 Hz; 32 max.; single phase: 115 to
127 VAC ( +/- 10%), 200 to 240 VAC (-10% + 6%) (Japan 200 V); 59/ 60Hz 10 A max.
54. What is the size and weight of the printer
(WxDxH) 5.17 x 1.66 x 1.66m (16.98 x 5.45 x 5.43 ft).
INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER
55. Is there a Site Preparation Guide? If so, is it helpful?
There is a six page site prep manual. And then there is a 17 page version, so I am confused why there are two.
However the question about “adequate ventilation” seems to contradict rather curiously claims in PR about the
lack of need for ventilation.
The questions about electrical fire prevention also would raise questions in most countries where wiring is, most
politely put, rather jerry-rigged.
The fact that the site preparation manual raises questions actually documents how good it really is. After all, print
shop owners will find out the reality sooner or later, and might as well be properly informed up front. So I give
good marks to the author of the Site Preparation Guide.
56. What is the rating of usefulness of the User’s Manual and other associated materials?
The User Manual is a modest 58 pages but is short possibly because there are several other manuals that cover
site preparation, etc.
57. Is there a glossary in the User’s Manual?
Yes, this is one of the few printer manuals that has a nice glossary: two pages worth at the end. Plus, there are
another two pages of glossary-like descriptions on pages 13-14.
58. Is there an index in the User’s Manual?
Yes, there is a modest index, slightly over one page worth.
59. What is the native language of these guides? Is the translation acceptable?
HP manuals tend to be written in native English, or if not, whosever does them is quite good in English. Definitely
better than manuals from China or manuals from Mimaki in Japan.
60. What kind of cut-away drawings or other drawings exist that show the various parts of the
printer?
There is a ¾ view of the front and ¾ view of the back, but at a scale so small you can’t see any details.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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TECH SUPPORT & WARRANTY
61. What are the hours of tech support?
If support is from the Eastern time zone, the hours should be at least 8 am through 8 pm to cover users on the
West Coast.
PRINTHEAD Technology
62. What printheads are used? Xaar, Spectra, Epson, Konica, Seiko or other?
This printer does not need piezo printheads. HP uses their own printheads, which are an advanced thermal inkjet
technology.
63. Is the printhead identified in the spec sheet brochure by brand or also by model, or not at
all?
Yes, the printhead is identified clearly as being from HP and being a thermal printhead.
64. Explain the pros and cons of Xaar, Spectra, Epson, Konica, Seiko or other heads relative to
their ability to handle solvent inks. If Xaar heads define how long they last compared with Epson
or Spectra heads.
Every kind of printhead has its positive and negative features. HP specializes in developing, designing, and
manufacturing their own printheads. They know printheads inside out.
A few competitors, such as Epson, whine about thermal printheads and claim that their own piezo heads are
perfect because they are permanent! This of course is self-delusion. Epson printheads wear out like any other
brand of printhead. Piezo heads clog on a regular basis. But they produce nice quality in the meantime. So every
head type has good features and downsides.
HP Designjet L65500 printheads.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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PRINTHEAD DPI & Print Quality
65. How many print modes are offered?
Indoor High Quality Plus mode (8 pass): 21 m²/hr (231 ft²/hr).
High Quality mode (6 pass): 28 m²/hr (306 ft²/hr)
Production Plus mode (5 pass, only SAV): 34 m²/hr (368 ft²/hr)
Production mode (4 pass): 43 m²/hr (460 ft²/hr)
Outdoor Billboard Plus mode (3 pass): 55 m²/hr (587 ft²/hr)6
Billboard mode (2 pass): 79 m²/hr (846 ft²/hr)
Draft mode (1 pass): 157 m²/hr (1691 ft²/hr)
66. How many passes can this printer achieve?
Up to 18 passes.
67. What is the quality like at one pass? Taking the various speeds that your printer advertises,
please explain the quality or defects of the output of your fastest speed? What does the output
really look like and is this sellable quality? Is the output at fastest speed junk or throw away, or
would a Fortune 500 client actually pay for it and be pleased.
There is no 1-pass printing possible and even 2-pass printing is not realistic. The L65500 is an impressive technological achievement, but sheer speed is still to come.
PRINTHEAD Banding Issues
68. Is there banding in areas of solid black?
Not normally.
69. Does this printer offer intelligent interweaving or comparable software?
No interweaving solution noticed.
PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy
70. Is there an alarm system to stop the head from hitting substrate if head is not high enough?
The Mimaki JV5 has the best system I have seen so far to avoid a head strike.
SAFETY CONCERNS
71. Are emergency buttons present, and if so how many, and where are they situated?
Two emergency buttons on the front, but on inset area, not precisely where the operator might be. Two on the
back, so total of four.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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Front emergency buttons on the HP Designjet L65500.
Back emergency buttons on the HP Designjet L65500.
72. How much odor is emitted by the ink?
HP states, several times, that no odor is emitted by the ink. But everyone else points out that several substrates
that can’t handle heat well emit an unpleasant odor when run through the HP curing system.
73. Is the machine enclosed, or exposed?
The machine is relatively open compared with most solvent printers.
74. What causes noise on this printer (if anything)?
Fans across the front.
75. What is the noise level?
Noise is bearable.
76. Are any other safety or health issues involved? Does the operator need to be concerned
with any other safety precautions?
The user manual clearly tells you even to wear gloves when handling the ink (even though this is not solvent
ink). This warning is clearly important, and would tend to make you question the green of an ink that requires
gloves.
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Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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77. Is the Operator Manual so poorly translated that you might make a mistake; a mistake that
could be damaging to your health, or otherwise dangerous for your printshop?
The manual appears to be written in native English. I don’t see anywhere that poor English exists or would cause
confusion. There may be an excess of PR-English claims about how much media it can really print on, but that
is a PR policy, not poor English diction.
78. How easy is it to access the MSDS of the ink?
It is rare that the MSDS of the ink is easy to obtain. If the MSDS is an auto-download from the company website,
this is how it should be. But most companies do not wish the end user to know which brand of ink is being used,
so hiding the MSDS is not necessarily an attempt to hide the dangers, but may be to hide the source of the ink.
I tried to find the MSDS of latex ink. There is a link which displayed so much stuff that I did not have time or
patience to figure out which was latex ink. I would rate accessibility to the MSDS as not exemplary. The MSDS
should be an instant download without needing to figure out what is the HP jargon for the catalog name and
number of the ink.
INKS
79. How many kinds of ink are available?
There is only one kind of ink because this is not a flatbed printer; there is no way to print on thick rigid materials.
Presently there is no aftermarket ink either.
80. Is this a full-solvent, mild or lite-solvent or eco-solvent?
“Has the same level of “solvents” as other water-based ink printers.” But there are not yet any specs on comparison of % of solvents in latex and any % of solvents in Sepiax resin ink.
81. What company makes the inks? Choices include DuPont, Sericol, Sun, Triangle, KonicaMinolta,
Tetenal, Toyo, and several others.
This ink may have been perfected by HP but was unlikely invented by HP. So far no one has revealed where this
ink comes from.
82. How many colors?
Six colors CMYK lightCyan and lightMagenta.
83. Is white ink available?
No.
White ink is not really available for most inkjet printers other than UV-cured. Roland and Mimaki offer white ink
but in past years until recently I have seen this more on Mimaki than on Roland. Now both companies are offering
silver effects ink,but this is mainly to attract attention (smoke and mirrors rather than an ink that will offer serious
production benefits to everyone). Epson is experimenting with a water-based white ink. They had it in a secret
room at Print 09, and naturally did not want me to even know it existed. But because they acted so strangely in
the booth, I suspected something was going on, and got all the information elsewhere at the show. It is a white
ink with no titanium dioxide.
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Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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Bulk ink containers on the HP Designjet L65500, photographed at Sign and Graphic Imaging, Dubai, 2009.
84. Other than white, how many spot colors are available? What about metallic colors?
There is no white. There are no spot colors. There is no metallic ink.
White ink is readily available with UV-cured printers and with Mimaki and Roland eco-solvent printers. Metallic
ink is available with Mimaki and Roland eco-solvent printers.
INK Cost
85. Does ink come in cartridges or bulk?
Since this is a 104 inch printer it needs bulk ink and offers this advantage.
86. Where do you add the ink? Front or back of the printer?
At the top left.
87. What is ink cost per liter (per cartridge, and per liter)?
Ink is not cheap and presently no after-market ink is available, though many companies are preparing such an ink.
INK Color Gamut
88. What colors can you achieve easily and nicely?
Pink and lavender look good.
89. What colors are hard to achieve?
Some colors look over-saturated. Some reds are not close. Greens are a bit “UV-like” meaning too yellow. When
you find someone who knows the printer and is frank about its pros and cons, they will admit the color gamut is
not extraordinary.
INK: Miscellaneous
90. What about ink drying time?
It takes a while for the curing heat to take care of the curing, so the printer is not the fastest thing in the world. A
comparable comment would be appropriate for Sepiax ink: it too requires heat to start it’s curing (but much less
heat than latex ink). Both systems will get faster as these systems achieve second generation development.
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Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
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INK: Appearance
91. Is output splotchy?
At one trade show even 12pt font was splotchy. This was the same trade show where the colors lacked POP,
shadows were lacking in detail, and color was not very true either. Perhaps a better engineer or operator could
have coaxed better performance from the printer.
INK: Longevity
92. What about solvents such as cleaning solvents? Do they mar, dull, or wash away the ink or
change the surface quality, especially on vehicle wrap?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ammonia (in Windex and comparable cleaning liquids)
Acetone
Cleaning alcohol
Gasoline
Soap and water with sponge
Soap and water with a broom (frequently used to clean vehicle wraps in Latin America,
for example)
• Scotch-tape pull-off test
SUBSTRATES
93. What is print width relative to roll width?
We have this entry because some printers are called “3.2” because they accept substrates that are 3.2 wide,
but the printer can actually print only 3.1 meters. In such a case the model name is misleading (and incorrect in
a sense).
94. Can you do borderless printing?
Over 72” printers you would not generally expect borderless capability.
95. How about maximum roll diameter or weight?
The roll can weigh up to 120 kg which is more than most single workers can lift by themselves.
96. Can the machine handle two different rolls of media side by side at the same time?
The original HP Designjet model did not handle two different rolls, but at ISA 2010 the dual-role model was
announced.
SUBSTRATES: Issues
97. Does this printer’s ink require special media? Is it coated? Even if not coated, is it the really
low-cost stuff, or is it limited (and hence by that very fact a tad expensive?)
In many cases latex ink requires that the substrate be coated. DuPont Tyvek is the best example that media
must be “treated.” Sepiax ink can print on uncoated Tyvek.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
19
SUBSTRATES: Image Quality
98. Do you get roller marks on some media? Which media? How bad are the marks?
Naturally whether or not you get marks from the path of the pinch roller depends on the pressure of the pinch
roller, what substrate you are printing on, and how high your ink load is. Normally with an HP latex printer you
would not expect roller track marks.
APPLICATIONS: What Questions should the printshop owner ask of himself?
99. What kinds of applications could we print tomorrow if we select the right printer?
In other FLAAR Reports we analyze the claims and counterclaims of latex vs eco-solvent+mild-solvent applications.
All I can say is the FLAAR list of applications from 2001-2003, before eco-solvent ink really became usable, and
based on pigmented water-based ink of those years (HP 5000, HP 5500, ColorSpan, Mimaki JV22, Mutoh and
Roland ) is a longer list than anything I have seen for latex ink and actually the longest itenization of wide-format
applications that exists for those years. Remember in those days Roland, Mutoh, and Mimaki were water-based,
before Epson make it clear that Epson wanted all water-based applications for itself, and no printer assembler
who used Epson heads was allowed to focus on water-based applications thereafter)).
Not many inks can print all applications or on all substrates. The best way to compare is simply to make a chart,
with columns: traditional water-based, eco-solvent, latex, UV-cured. It is ironic that there are new inks that beat
traditional water-based (but these other inks are so new, such as Sepiax, that no printer yet uses them).
100. Can you print fine art photos, giclee, or décor?
At 8 or more passes you can definitely print décor; At maximum number of passes you could print giclee if the
colors in the original painting could be reproduced by the gamut of latex ink (which is probably a significantly
better gamut than UV-cured).
101. What other kinds of applications can you print?
• Billboards (good on several materials, because viewing distance is far)
• Banners, general signage (good on most materials, because viewing distance is far)
• Exhibit graphics; okay if printed at more than 8 passses.
• Backlit; yes
• POP; yes, if printed at more than 8 passes
• Bus shelters, yes, especially if printed at 6 passes or more.
102. What kinds of applications are not something you should try? What applications print well,
mediocre, or poorly, and why?
The question is more what materials, media, and aubstrates can’t take the extreme heat of the curing that is
needed for latex ink.So far no such list has been published.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
20
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
HP had a very educative
booth at SGIA ‘09.
Behind the Latex printer there
was an area of applications.
In this sequence you see
the installation of wallpaper
media. In the upper set, the
demonstrator removes a
piece of material and cleans
the surface.
In the second row you see
the placement of a new piece.
The image at the left shows
the final result.
Notice that the ink is waterproof. Traditional water-based
ink would not hold if it made
contact with water.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
POP signage and mesh for windows are other applications possible with Latex ink.
21
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
22
Applications samples of latex inks: Designjet L65500 at HP Demo Center in Barcelona 2009.
A printhead that produces
a drop size of 12pl, such
as the head used in the HP
Scitex LX600, is appropriate
to reproduce art.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
23
Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications
103. How good is the adhesion of the ink?
When I visit a trade show on most materials the ink does not scratch off the material.
104. What about solvents such as cleaning solvents? Do they mar, dull, or wash away the ink or
change the surface quality?
• Windex – Ammonia
• Acetone
• Cleaning alcohol
• Gasoline
• Soap and water
• Scotch-tape pull-off test
105. Is misting observable?
The way you can tell whether your printer has an issue with misting is to put a white napkin inside the printer. See
if it turns colors from ink mist landing on it.
Or, look under the media edge guard. If the area to the right (where mist can land) has a faint barely perceptible
gray or other light color, that is misting ink that has landed there.
Misting is common with UV-cured printer systems, indeed misting is heavy on a few models. But no misting
would be expected with this HP latex printer
RIP SOFTWARE
106. Is a RIP included?
No RIP is included.
107. Is a computer and monitor included (to run the RIP)?
You need to buy a separate computer to run a RIP to handle this printer.
108. Is this RIP fine tuned for this printer in particular?
Yes, any RIP for latex ink must be very special. This has been one of the most unique inks that any wide-format
RIP software has ever attempted to handle. It has taken the RIP developers most effort than for any other ink.
One issue is the ink chemistry and curing per se; another aspect may be the competition between which software will control things: the HP firmware guided by its on-board system; or a color management system with a
separate spectrophotometer.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
24
PRODUCTIVITY & ROI (Return on Investment)
109. What is the level of productivity, high, medium, low?
Because the heat must dwell over the material a few seconds, the productivity of the initial models is not setting
speed records. But the same with Sepiax ink; the first printers are not setting speed records either. But when
newer models (of anything) come out, the new models are generally less slow.
ADVERTISING CLAIMS: Anything Misleading? Any Hype? Slight Exaggeration?
110. Please look at the ad claims for this printer in magazines and on the internet. What aspects of
these ads will a buyer of that model soon find out are perhaps slightly exaggerated? In some ads
it seems to be the goal to list as outstanding features precisely where the printer is weak. After all,
once we buy your printer we are going to find out about these discrepancies relatively quickly:
metamerism on some models; slowness on most models; banding defects; inability to print on
after-market media; small ink cartridges combined with high cost of consumables, etc.
Printer
HP LX600
Draft speed
(useless due to
low quality in most
cases)
157 m /hour
Quoted speeds in
spec sheets
39 m /hour,
Quoted speeds in
spec sheets
6 pass 23 m /hour, 10
pass
Top quality, but thus
naturally lowest
productivity
Skillfully not quoted
in HP spec sheet
HP LX800
DGI 3.2 m
Seiko H104s
Roland AJ
The claim that “Print on low-cost uncoated papers…. Solvent printers require more expensive coated papers to
achieve the same results.” Is dubious at best and I fail to understand why anyone would make such an undocumented claim.
First, DuPont Tyvek must be coated to use with. But for Sepiax resin ink, uncoated Tyvek is fine.
Clearly whoever wrote this claim has no knowledge of Sepiax ink, or if so, is skillfully hiding his or her knowledge of resin ink.
But the purpose of solvent ink is precisely to print on cheap uncoated material. Indeed, most solvent printers
can print on the absolute cheapest Chinese PVC. But cheap junk from Asia would probably melt or deform
inside an HP Scitex LX600 or LX800 printer.
None of these problems with HP latex ink would have been noticeable if the spec sheets and brochures had not
exaggerated so much. The HP Scitex latex printers are great. Just that their greatness is limited. They do many
things fine, but by no means whatsoever do everything perfectly (nor does any other printer or any other ink).
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
25
111. How would end-user describe this printer? Easy to use, takes care of itself, does not require
you to personally become a repair or maintenance technician?
HP makes sure that their printers are easy to use and that the printers have their own mechanism to take care
of themselves, within reason.
112. How often do people return this printer and say they want their money back?
I have now heard of two cases of buyers who were very disenchanted. One said “it was a disaster” The other
was upset that the 60” version was not adequate for producing giclee, but frankly you would have to be pretty
naïve to think this kind of ink could do giclee. In both cases the dissatisfaction was because the millions of dollars in PR have mesmerized people about the eco-green message.
Like people In some religious cult, they have not thought things through on their own. They buy the printer and
only once they have it do the find it is not created by some green deity, but it is simply a machine with one kind
of ink for a limited range of tasks.
The printshops that are happy are those whose clients fit nicely into the limited range of tasks. The unenchanted
owners are the ones who were bamboozled by the mantry of green this, green that, eco-this, eco-that, and then
found that the machine, as a machine, had limitations.
It is reported that printshop owners in Japan are especially disenchanted, and a few in Taiway perhaps also.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
113. What will the resale value of your printer be in three to five years? When you buy a printer
nowadays, people easily forget to ask what the resale value will be in three to five years. When
you buy a printer nowadays, people easily forget to ask what the resale value will be in three to
five years.
So a good question is, will either the brand name or model specifications cause a knowing buyer three years from
now to shy away from your printer or cause a knowing buyer to only want to pay a very low price as compared
to the other printers our company is considering?
A company which is no longer in business may cause printers of that brand to lose value in the used market. A
company which has filed for bankruptcy (irrespective of what other legal jargon they use, to the normal person,
if a company does not pay its bills, it is considered effectively bankrupt). It is possible that such a printer brand
could lose value when offered used.
Well HP will certainly still be in business, so the corporate aspect will not influence sales value as used in three
to five years. But since resin water-based printers are already being developed elsewhere, in three to five years
printshops will want a resin printer, not a used vintage 2009-2010 latex printer.
So I would not count on much of a high resale value used in three years. If you sell your HP printer now you can
probably get your money back (since we assume you have made some profit selling print jobs since the day it
was installed). But you better hurry because by SGIA 2010 the new printers will be announced (I am not sure the
new printers will be leaked by FESPA).
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
26
114. Another question is to ask, is there some major technological breakthrough in your market
applications that will result in less value for your current model?
Yes, we tried to hint this in the answer above. In 2009 latex was king. By 2010 doubts have set in. By 2011 there
will be so much new ink technology elsewhere that latex ink will be in their shadow. Note: this does not at all
mean you should hold off. This does not mean you should not buy an HP latex printer.
There is today no 104” Sepiax printer (it is unsure whether Sepiax ink would work in the Seiko printheads of the
Roland AdvancedJet).
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS
115. If you are dissatisfied, what about the advertising or other claims made you buy this in the
beginning, and why do you now feel disillusioned?
The word disallusionment is what I am increasingly hearing. This is sad, because what caused it is NOT a bad or
inadequate printer. What caused disallusionment is excessive claims in the advertising brochures, and too much
smoke-and-mirrors about the ecology and environmental friendliness.
I would bet that if any printshop actually measured how much electricity each individual printer used, they would
be shocked. But I doubt if any printshop owner or even manager really is aware of the actual cost of electricityper-printer-per-hour. So it is other aspects that cause people to feel disappointed: mainly the media restrictions,
the fact the ink is a monopoly, and there is not much flexibility.
116. When people are considering buying this printer, what other printer(s) are they also looking at?
In 2008 and 2009 the choice was between HP latex and solvent printers and UV-cured roll-to-roll printers. For
2010 printshop owners now have to decide whether a resin ink printer may be better for them.
117. What features on the other printers turn them off?
Presently there are no heavy-duty production level printers made from the ground up to work with Sepiax ink. But
the 104” HP latex ink printer is the result of years of experience between HP Designjet and HP Scitex. So with the
L65500 you have a chassis and structure and ink delivery system designed exclusively for the latex ink.
SUMMARY: Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications
118. What about the dot pattern? Is the image grainy (like sand) or is the image smooth as you
would expect of a photograph?
Image is smooth; no graininess (UV-inks are grainy like sand sometimes).
119. What about splotchiness (mottle)?
No mottle.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
27
Conclusions
Pros
A significant benefit of the HP Scitex LX600 and LX800
printers are that the prints are more than dry to the
touch, they are fully cured when they come out of the
printer. There is no overnight curing needed.
With solvent inks, and also with Sepiax ink, the prints
take 24 hours to fully dry (though you can laminate Sepiax after it comes out; with solvent you need to wait).
However Sepiax ink offers so many other advantages
(over solvent and latex ink) that the occasional issue
should be weighed with the benefits
Has a glossary in the User Manual, a nice feature that
is seldom available for other printers. The manual also
has a basic index at the back.
The section on applications (actually on how to handle
the substrates) is really user-friendly. It is arranged almost in glossary format: very easy to understand. The
author of this section deserves a compliment (pages.
13-14).
HP thermal printhead technology has several advantages over piezo technology.
The structure of the printer is professionally engineered.
This is a serious machine from the ground up.
There is now a good choice between 104” and 126”
widths.
The inclusion of applications in the HP LX600 data
sheet is well done. I like the use of real-world applications (instead of exaggerated claims of eco-greeness
and claims of how much better the ink supposed is
than solvent or anything else; most of those claims
vary from exaggerated to simply untrue).
The one claim of HP that I accept is the fact that wallpaper printed with HP latex ink is less offensive smell than
wallpaper printed with solvent or UV-cured ink. We will
assume that Sepiax resin ink can print on all wallpapers
also, and equally with minimal odor, but no one who was
writing the HP material seems to be aware of resin ink.
The availability of a trough for catching ink that may
pass through a fabric is an important feature.
Plus or minus, depending on how you
weigh the situation
Page 24 is the most blunt reality check of the entire
printer. This is a completely honest and precise description of everything that may happen if the temperatures are a bit too low or a bit too high for drying zone,
curing zone as well as vacuum pressure and tension
(feeding the material through the system).
Here is where if you read only this one page you would
be skeptical, But I have spoken personally with two
experienced users of this printer, and either they had
gone beyond these issues or maybe because they
At one trade show the images looked uninspiring;
lacked POP and shadow areas lacked detail. But perhaps the ink limit was inadequately set.
In this same trade show the colors were not very good
either: turquoise water in a resort photo looked simply
bizarre. Most yellows were either dirty or a bit green
(surprisingly like UV-ink yellow issues).
Reds were too orange (again, like UV cured reds).
Blue and Cyan were oversaturated (again, like UVcured inks). Is the extreme heat of latex ink curing and
the extreme UV-curing lamp temperatures causing
these minute color changes?
The spec sheet claims that printing directly to polyester
with HP latex inks is superior to traditional dye sublimation. But the spec sheet conveniently and skillfully
neglects to say whether HP latex ink can produce the
POP of traditional dye sublimation. Note: full dye sub
(via transfer paper) usually has more pop than directto-fabric disperse dye ink.
It would also be interesting to compare longevity of
HP latex ink on polyester compared to either disperse
dye or dye sublimation inks. Dye inks have notoriously
short life-span outside in the sun.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
A potential downside is mentioned in fine-print: “polyester fabric that does not stretch…” Whether this means
you can use only expensive polyester remains to be
seen. Most dedicated dye sub printers have a transport
system made specifically for polyester fabric. However
the feed and take-up system of the HP latex printers is
a basic system, not made for fabric.
Downsides
I can understand PR release kind of happy claims in a
PR release, but once you have the printer in your printshop, it would be best to abandon PR claims and stick
with the reality that the printer operator, manager, and
printshop owner will find out very quickly. Claiming the
printer prints on lots of materials is weak at best and
is the most disputed aspect of latex ink. Frankly this
claim merely invites counter-arguments, so in the User
Manual I would suggest this claim be removed. And
in the User Manual is the place to list with justifiable
pride what media and materials the latex ink can print
on, and be up front and open about what media and
substrates the latex ink is not appropriate on.
Every solvent, UV-curable, and eco-solvent printer
manufacturer is already (at SGIA 2009) already loudly
singling out the restricted media as something their ecosolvent printers are not subjected to. Personally I feel if
this reality were faced head on, it would have removed
the incentive for every single mild-solvent, lite-solvent,
and eco-solvent printer manufacturer from warning every single solitary person who came into their booth (I
also got lambasted about this at VISCOM Duesseldorf,
where the popular smaller sizes of HP L25500 were
launched the week before SGIA).
Electrical requirements are a bit intimidating in some
countries and in remote areas especially.
I do not see any test results for hazardous chemicals
released by printing on cheap Chinese PVC or other
really cheap Asian media. All the test results are for the
ink alone. But the resulting prints are a combination of
ink PLUS substrate. PVC has many nasty chemicals
in it, and cheaper PVC who knows what’s inside. So it
would be helpful to see test results on what chemicals
are released into the air by heating cheap PVC to 100
degrees C.
28
And more information on the odor from such over-heated media would also be helpful.
Several people have pointed out that the ink is relatively matte, and not glossy. Seiko ColorPainter defines
the beauty of glossy pop in a signage ink, especially for
black. Latex ink is not able to achieve a “Seiko gloss.”
Thus I find the advertising claim in the HP spec sheet,
“comparable to low-solvent ink technology—for rich
hues and vibrant tones” as unrealistic. I am not sure
that claim is true at all. The image quality itself is great,
just that it’s not as bright and colorful as low-solvent.
Go to any major Chinese signage printer show, such
as Dongguan, Guangzhou, or Shanghai APPPEXPO,
and you will see stunning displays of bright colors with
diverse kinds of solvent ink. Where is this kind of POP
and gorgeous color saturation in any latex ink booth?
But if your clients prefer satin (which is a bit less than
gloss), and if the substrate itself is glossy, you can indeed obtain a nice image with the HP Scitex LX600 and
LX800. But yu can obtain the same, or better, with most
solvent ink printers (eco, mild, low, light, and full).
Commentary
While at Japan Shop expo in Tokyo, March 2010, it
was possible to get considerable insight into HP latex
ink obstacles in the Japanese market. The comments
were from a knowledgable and experienced person in
the Asian world area. He was neither HP nor a competitor of HP, so his comments have even more credibility.
He said that in general print shop owners in Asia had
more expectations, and frankly were disappointed that
the printer could not do more.
“Cheaper vinyl starts shrinking at 75 to 80 degrees C.”
“There is no cheap media available”
PVC is okay uncoated but most other media requires
coatings, which increases cost.
Clear polyester media gets scratched by the “needles”
that are in S shape on the platen. These pins may
scratch the underside of the media. You have to put
fabric or mesh across the platen to avoid scratching.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
Blueback paper can’t be waterproof.
Lighter browns not good.
Some green colors not good.
The validity of the observations were clear because this
source also made positive comments on the printer: “it
has good precise feeding.” And, “HP latex ink is excellent for backlit. It “can replace Lamda””
But he concluded that latex ink sales in Japan and
Taiwan would unlikely be a runaway success because
of limitations. He said again that “expectations were
too high.”
Reading between the lines: PR releases from HP were
too juicy and promised too much. Now you see why
FLAAR makes no effort to become a PR agency. We
prefer to list the reality of a printer, and not rosy promises that perhaps are unrealistic.
Another feature of every single HP PR release on this
printer is the constant claim of being better than solvent, eco-solvent or mild-solvent (light or lite-solvent).
But nowhere is there any hint that anyone who wrote a
single word of these spec sheets was aware whatsoever of water-based resin inks from other sources.
It is as if the latex ink spec sheets were frozen in time
back to 2008 (Sepiax ink was first shown to an international public at FESPA Digital Geneva, summer 2008,
before DRUPA that year). Sepiax ink was launched officially in the USA at Graphics of the Americas in Miami
in early 2010 and again at ISA in the Spring. There was
a further launch at Sign & Digital UK 2010.
So the total absence of any recognition of this other
water-based resin ink is strange, especially since no
HP latex ink can (yet) print on thick or rigid material.
Sepiax ink is adept at this: solid metal, ceramic tiles,
wood, etc.
It is noteworthy that no trade magazine has dared say
anything that is not an HP-style PR release or Success
Story about the latex printers. So the main advantage
of the FLAAR Reports is that for the first time you can
really see the pros and cons of latex ink.
29
And most importantly, this is the first outside review of
the advertising claims for latex ink.
Yet we do not feel it is appropriate to recommend not
buying this printer. Our purpose is to alert the printshop
owner, manager and printer operator to a bit more of
the reality check of the occasional limitations of latex
ink.
The advantage of this FLAAR Report is that now, for
printshops who do prefer HP latex ink and the HP Scitex solution and support, that they will be better prepared for the few things that the printer can’t do. So
hopefully the owners will be more content with their
purchase of the HP Scitex latex printers.
Every printshop has different needs; different applications. For some the HP latex ink printer is the best
available in 2010. As new printers come out with other water-based resin inks, this will change, but these
changes will not happen until either very late in 2010 or
more likely during 2011. If you need a latex ink printer
now, today (summer 2010), there is not yet any production printer at 3.2 meter width or even at 104 inches
that can use other resin inks.
First prepared November 2009, but not issued until
May 2010 because we wished to learn more about the
printer from both end-users and from industry analysts.
So between November and May there have been numerous updates.
If you purchased this 1st Edition, you can request
the eventual updated 2nd edition at no cost. Just
send an e-mail to [email protected] and indicate approximately when you bought the 1st edition. Please wait until you see comments on the
FLAAR web sites that a 2nd edition is available.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
Reality Check
Being a university professor for many years does not mean we know
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are obviously not yet expert. If in your years of wide format printing experience have encountered results different that ours, please
let us know at [email protected]. We do not mind eating
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the more than 53,000 of our many readers who have shared their
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30
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sells or promotes, then it would be appropriate to ask us first. FLAAR
reports are being updated every month sometimes, and our comment
on that product may have been revised as we learned more about
the product from end users. Also, we noticed that one company cited
the single favorable comment we made on one nice aspect of their
printer, but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out
the features of the printer which did not do so well. For them to correct this error after the fact is rather embarrassing. So it is safer to
ask-before-you-quote a FLAAR review on your product.
The material in this report is not only copyright, it is also based on
years of research. Therefore if you cite or quote a pertinent section,
please provide a proper credit, which would be minimally “Nicholas
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Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
Hellmuth, year, www.FLAAR.org.” If the quote is more than a few
words then academic tradition would expect that a footnote or entry in your bibliography would reference the complete title. Publisher
would be www.FLAAR.org.
If you intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint
presentation, if this is in reference to any product that your company
sells or promotes, then it would be appropriate to license the report
or otherwise notify us in advance. FLAAR reports are being updated
every week sometimes, and our comment on that product may have
been revised as we learned more about the product from end users.
Also, we noticed that one company cited the single favorable comment we made on one nice aspect of their printer, but neglected to
cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer
which did not do so well. For them to correct this error after the fact is
rather embarrassing. So it is safer to ask-before-you-quote a FLAAR
review on your product.
Legal notice
Inclusion in this study by itself in no way endorses any printer, media,
ink, RIP or other digital imaging hardware or software. Equally, exclusion from this study in no way is intended to discredit any printer.
Advisory
We do our best to obtain information which we consider reliable.
But with hundreds of makes and models of printers, and sometimes
when information about them is sparse, or conflicting, we can only
work with what we have available. Thus you should be sure to rely
also on your own research, especially asking around. Find another
trustworthy end-user of the same make and model you need to know
about. Do not make a decision solely on the basis of a FLAAR report
because your situation may be totally different than ours. Or we may
not have known about, and hence not written about, one aspect or
another which is crucial before you reach your decision.
The sources and resources we may list are those we happen to have
read. There may be other web pages or resources that we missed.
For those pages we do list, we have no realistic way to verify the veracity of all their content. Use your own common sense plus a grain of
salt for those pages which are really just PR releases or outright ads.
We are quite content with the majority of the specific printers, RIPs,
media, and inks we have in the FLAAR facilities. We would obviously
never ask for hardware, software, or consumables that we knew in
advance would not be good. However even for us, a product which
looks good at a trade show, sounds good in the ad literature, and
works fine for the first few weeks, may subsequently turn out to be
a lemon.
Or the product may indeed have a glitch but one that is so benign for
us, or maybe we have long ago gotten used to it and have a workaround. And not all glitches manifest themselves in all situations, so
our evaluator may not have been sufficiently affected that he or she
made an issue of any particular situation. Yet such a glitch that we
don’t emphasize may turn out to be adverse for your different or special application needs.
Equally often, what at first might be blamed on a bad product, often
turns out to be a need of more operator experience and training. More
often than not, after learning more about the product it becomes possible to produce what it was intended to produce. For this reason it is
crucial for the FLAAR team and their university colleagues to interact
31
with the manufacturer’s training center and technicians, so we know
more about a hardware or software. Our evaluations go through a
process of acquiring documentation from a wide range of resources
and these naturally include the manufacturer itself. Obviously we
take their viewpoints with a grain of salt but often we learn tips that
are worthy of being passed along.
FLAAR has no way of testing 400+ specifications of any printer, much
less the over 101 different UV printers from more than 46 manufacturers. Same with hundreds of solvent printers and dozens of waterbased printers. We observe as best we can, but we cannot take each
printer apart to inspect each feature. And for UV printers, these are
too expensive to move into our own facilities for long-range testing,
so we do as best as is possible under the circumstances. And when
a deficiency does become apparent, usually from word-of-mouth or
from an end-user, it may take time to get this written up and issued
in a new release.
Another reason why it is essential for you to ask other printshop owners and printer operators about how Brand X and Y function in the
real world is that issues may exist but it may take months for these
issues to be well enough known for us to know the details. Although
often we know of the issues early, and work to get this information
into the PDFs, access to information varies depending on brand and
model. Plus with over 300 publications, the waiting time to update a
specific report may be several months. Plus, once a printer is considered obsolete, it is not realistic to update it due to the costs involved.
If you received a FLAAR PDF from a sales rep, they may give you an
early version; perhaps there is a later version that mentions a defect
that we learned about later.
For these reasons, every FLAAR Report tries to have its publication
date on the front outside cover (if we updated everything instantly
the cost would be at commercial rates and it would not be possible
to cover these expenses). At the end of most FLAAR Reports there
is additionally a list of how many times that report has been updated.
A report with lots of updates means that we are updating that subject
based on availability of new information. If there is no update that is
a pretty good indication that report has not been updated! With 101
models of UV printers, several hundred solvent printers, and scores
of water-based printers, we tend to give priority to getting new reports out on printers about which not much info at all is available
elsewhere. So we are pretty good about reporting on advances in
LED curing. But glitches in a common water-based printer will take
longer to work its way through our system into an update, especially
if the glitch occurs only in certain circumstances, for example, on one
type of media. With several hundred media types, we may not yet
have utilized the problem media. While on the subject of doing your
own research, be sure to ask both the printer operator and printshop
owner or manager: you will generally get two slightly different stories.
A printer operator may be aware of more glitches of the printer than
the owner.
If a printer is no longer a prime model then there is less interest in
that printer, so unless a special budget were available to update old
reports, it is not realistic to update old reports. As always, it is essential for you to visit printshops that have the printers on your short-list
and see how they function in the real world.
But even when we like a product and recommend it, we still can’t
guarantee or certify any make or model nor its profitability in use
because we don’t know the conditions under which a printer system
might be utilized in someone else’s facility. For ink and media, especially after-market third-party ink and media, it is essential that you
test it first, under your conditions. We have no way to assure that
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any ink or media will be acceptable for your specific needs in your
specific print shop. As a result, products are described “as is” and
without warranties as to performance or merchantability, or of fitness
for a particular purpose. Any such statements in our reports or on our
web sites or in discussions do not constitute warranties and shall not
be relied on by the buyer in deciding whether to purchase and/or use
products we discuss because of the diversity of conditions, materials
and/or equipment under which these products may be used. Thus
please recognize that no warranty of fitness or profitability for a particular purpose is offered.
It is also crucial to realize that an ink (that we inspect, that works well
where we inspect it), your printer, your printhead, the heat, humidity
and dust conditions in your printshop, may cause that ink to react differently in your printer. And, there are different batches of ink. Even in
the really big multi-national billion-dollar ink companies, occasionally
one batch will have issues. There are over 100 ink companies; six
colors per company, many flavors of ink per company per color. We
have no realistic manner of testing each ink. The same is true of media and substrates. One production run can have a glitch: chemical or
physical, even in the best of companies. A major Swiss-owned media
company, for example, had several months of media which were almost unusable. Yet other kinds of media from the same company are
okay (though we stopped using that brand and stopped recommending them after all the issues we ourselves experienced).
The user is advised to test products thoroughly before relying on
them. We do not have any special means of analyzing chemical contents or flammability of inks, media, or laminates, nor how these need
to be controlled by local laws in your community. There may well be
hazardous chemicals, or outgassing that we are not aware of. Be
aware that some inks have severe health hazards associated with
them. Some are hazardous to breathe; others are hazardous if you
get them on your skin. For example, some chemicals such as cyclohexanone do not sound like chemicals you want to breathe every
day. Be sure to obtain, read, and understand the MSDS sheets for
the inks, media, and laminates that you intend to use. Both solvent,
eco-solvent, and UV-curable inks are substances whose full range
of health and environmental hazards are not yet fully revealed. It is
essential you use common sense and in general be realistic about
the hazards involved, especially those which are not listed or which
have not yet been described. FLAAR is not able to list all hazards
since we are not necessarily aware of the chemical components of
the products we discuss. Plus, there is no way to know if all MSDS
sheets are honest to begin with! Our reports are on usability, not on
health hazards.
Most inks are clearly not intended to be consumed. Obviously these
tend to be solvent inks and UV-curable inks. Yet other inks are edible,
seriously, they are printed on birthday cakes. Indeed Sensient is a
leader in a new era of edible inks. Therefore the user must assume
the entire risk of ascertaining information on the chemical contents
and flammability regulations relative to inks, media or laminates as
well as using any described hardware, software, accessory, service,
technique or products.
We have no idea of your client’s expectations. What students on our
campus will accept may not be the same as your Fortune 500 clients.
In many cases we have not ourselves used the products but are basing our discussion on having seen them at a trade show, during visiting a print shop, or having been informed about a product via e-mail
or other communication.
32
Results you see at trade shows may not be realistic
Be aware that trade show results may not be realistic. Trade shows
are idealized situations, with full-time tech support to keep things running. The images at a trade show may be tweaked. Other images
make be “faked” in the sense of slyly putting on primer without telling
the people who inspect the prints. Most UV inks don’t stick to all materials; many materials need to be treated.
Or the UV prints may be top-coated so that you can’t do a realistic
scratch test.
Booth personnel have many standard tricks that they use to make
their output look gorgeous. In about half the cases you will not likely
obtain these results in real life: in most cases they are printing unidirectional, which may be twice as slow as bi-directional.
Trade show examples tend to be on the absolutely best media. When
you attempt to save money and use economy media you will quickly
notice that you do not get anywhere near the same results as you
saw in the manufacturer’s trade show booth, or pictured in their
glossy advertisement. Five years ago we noticed Epson was laminating prints to show glossy output because their pigmented inks could
not print on actual glossy media. The same equipment, inks, media,
and software may not work as well in your facility as we, or you, see it
at a trade show. All the more reason to test before you buy; and keep
testing before you make your final payment. Your ultimate protection
is to use a gold American Express credit card so you can have leverage when you ask for your money back if the product fails.
Images printed at trade show may be in uni-directional mode: so you
may not realize the printer has bi-directional (curing) banding defects
until you unpack it in your printshop. Bi-directional curing banding is
also known as the lawnmower effect. Many printers have this defect;
sometimes certain modes can get rid of it, but are so slow that they
are not productive.
You absolutely need to do print samples with your own images and
the kind provided by your clients. Do not rely on the stock photos
provided by the printer, ink, media, or RIP manufacturer or reseller.
They may be using special images which they know in advance will
look fabulous on their printer. Equally well, if you send your sample
images to the dealer, don’t be surprised if they come back looking
awful. That is because many dealers won’t make a serious effort to
tweak their machine for your kind of image. They may use fast speed
just to get the job done (this will result in low quality). Check with
other people in your area, or in the same kind of print business that
you do. Don’t rely on references from the reseller or manufacturer
(you will get their pet locations which may be unrealistically gushy):
find someone on your own.
Factors influencing output
Heat, humidity, static, dust, experience level of your workers (whether they are new or have prior years experience): these are all factors
that will differ in your place of business as compared with test results
or demo room results.
Actually you may have people with even more experience than we do,
since we deliberately use students to approximate newbies. FLAAR
is devoted to assisting newcomers learn about digital imaging hard-
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ware and software. This is why Nicholas Hellmuth is considered the
“Johnny Appleseed” of wide format inkjet printers.
Therefore this report does not warranty any product for any quality,
performance or fitness for any specific task, since we do not know
the situation in which you intend to use the hardware or software. Nor
is there any warranty or guarantee that the output of these products
will produce salable goods, since we do not know what kind of ink
or media you intend to use, nor the needs of your clients. A further
reason that no one can realistically speak for all aspects of any one
hardware or software is that each of these products may require additional hardware or software to reach its full potential.
For example, you will most likely need a color management system
which implies color measurement tools and software. To handle ICC
color profiles, you may need ICC color profile generation software
and a spectrophotometer since often the stock pre-packaged ICC
color profiles which come with the ink, media, printers and/or RIPs
may not work in your situation. Not all RIPs handle color management
equally, or may work better for some printer-ink-media combinations
than for others. Please be aware that our comments or evaluations
on any after-market ink would need the end-user to use customized
ICC profiles (and not merely generic profiles).
Be aware that some RIPs can only accept ICC color profiles: you
quickly find out the hard way that you can’t tweak these profiles nor
generate new ones. So be sure to get a RIP which can handle all
aspects of color management. Many RIPs come in different levels.
You may buy one level and be disappointed that the RIP won’t do
everything. That’s because those features you may be lacking are
available only in the next level higher of that RIP, often at considerable extra cost. Same thing in the progression of Chevy through
Pontiac to Cadillac, or the new Suburbans. A Chevy Suburban simply
does not have all the bells and whistles of the Cadillac Escalade version of this SUV.
Don’t blame us… besides, that’s why we are warning you. This is
why we have a Survey Form, so we can learn when you find products
that are inadequate. We let the manufacturers know when end users
complain about their products so that the manufacturers can resolve
the situation when they next redesign the system.
Most newer printer models tend to overcome deficiencies of earlier
models. It is possible that our comparative comments point out a
glitch in a particular printer that has been taken care of through an
improvement in firmware or even an entirely new printer model. So if
we point out a deficiency in a particular printer brand, the model you
may buy may not exhibit this headache, or your kind of printing may
not trigger the problem. Or you may find a work-around.
Just remember that every machine has quirks, even the ones we like.
It is possible that the particular kind of images, resolution, inks, media,
or other factors in your facility are sufficiently different than in ours that
a printer which works just fine for us may be totally unsatisfactory for
you and your clients. However it may be that the specific kind of printing you need to do may never occasion that shortcoming. Or, it may
be that your printer was manufactured on a Monday and has defects
that are atypical, show up more in the kind of media you use which we
may not use as often or at all during our evaluations. Equally possibly
a printer that was a disaster for someone else may work flawlessly for
you and be a real money maker for your company.
So if we inspect a printer in a printshop (a site-visit case study), and
that owner/operator is content with their printer and we mention this;
don’t expect that you will automatically get the same results in your
own printshop.
33
In some cases a product may work better on a Macintosh than on a
PC. RIP software may function well with one operating system yet
have bugs and crash on the same platform but with a different operating system. Thus be sure to test a printer under your own specific
work conditions before you buy.
And if a printer, RIP, media, or ink does not function, return it with no
ands, ifs or buts. Your best defense is to show an advertising claim
that the printer simply can’t achieve. Such advertising claims are in
violation of federal regulations, and the printer companies know they
are liable for misleading the public.
But before you make a federal case, just be sure that many of the
issues are not user error or unfamiliarity. It may be that training or an
additional accessory can make the printer do what you need it to accomplish. Of course if the printer ads did not warn you that you had to
purchase the additional pricey accessory, that is a whole other issue.
Our reviews do not cover accessories since they are endless, as is
the range of training, or lack thereof, among users.
The major causes of printer breakdown and failure is lack of maintenance, poor maintenance, spotty maintenance, or trying to jerryrig some part of the printer. The equally common cause of printer
breakdown is improper use, generally due from lack of training or
experience. Another factor is whether you utilize your printer all day
every day. Most solvent and UV printers work best if used frequently.
If you are not going to use your printer for two or three days, you
have to put flush into the system and prepare it for hibernation (even
if for only four or five days). Then you have to flush the ink system
all over again.
Also realize that the surface of inkjet prints are fragile and generally require lamination to survive much usage. Lamination comes in
many kinds, and it is worth finding a reliable lamination company and
receiving training on their products.
Also realize that no hybrid or combo UV printer can feed all kinds
of rigid materials precisely. Some materials feed well; others feed
poorly; others will skew.
Although we have found several makes and models to work very well
in our facilities, how well they work in your facilities may also depend
on your local dealer. Some dealers are excellent; others just sell you
a box and can’t provide much service after the sale. Indeed some
low-bid internet sales sources may have no technical backup whatsoever. If you pay low-bid price, you can’t realistically expect special
maintenance services or tech support later on from any other dealer
(they will tell you to return to where you paid for the product). This is
why we make an effort to find out which dealers are recommendable.
Obviously there are many other dealers who are also good, but we
do not always know them. To protect yourself further, always pay with
a level of credit card which allows you to refuse payment if you have
end up with a lemon. A Gold American Express card allows you to refuse payment even months after the sale. This card may also extend
your warranty agreement in some cases (check first).
Most of the readers of the FLAAR Reports look to see what printers we use in our own facilities. Readers realize that we will have
selected the printers that we like based on years of experience and
research. Indeed we have met people at trade shows who told us
they use the FLAAR web site reports as the shopping list for their
corporate purchases.
Yes, it is rather self-evident that we would never ask a manufacturer
to send a product which we knew in advance from our studies was no
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34
good. But there are a few other printers which are great but we simply
do not have them in our facilities yet.
nario for this was the half-million dollar Luscher JetPrint: so being
“Made in Switzerland” was not much help.
So if a printer is not made available by its manufacturer, then there is
no way we can afford to have all these makes and models in our facility. Thus to learn about models which we do not feature, be sure to
ask around in other print shops, with IT people in other corporations,
at your local university or community college. Go to trade shows….
but don’t use only the booth…ask questions of people in the elevator,
in line at the restaurant, anywhere to escape the smothering hype
you get in the booth.
Counterfeit parts are a problem with many printers made in
China
Realize that a FLAAR Report on a printer is not by itself a recommendation of that printer. In your local temperature, in your local humidity,
with the dust that is in your local air, with your local operator, and
with disorientation of the insides of a printer during rough shipment
and installation, we have no knowledge of what conditions you will
face in your own printshop. We tend to inspect a printer first in the
manufacturing plant demo room: no disjointed parts from any shipment since this printer has not been lifed by cranes and run over a
rough pot-holed highway or kept in smeltering heat or freezing cold
during shipment.
Taking into consideration we do not know the conditions in which you
may be using your hardware, software, or consumables, neither the
author nor FLAAR nor either university is liable for liability, loss or damage caused either directly or indirectly by the suggestions in this report
nor by hardware, software, or techniques described herein because.
Availability of spare parts may be a significant issue
Chinese printers tend to switch suppliers for spare parts every month
or so. So getting spare parts for a Chinese printer will be a challenge even if the distributor or manufacturer actually respond to your
e-mails at all. Fortunately some companies to have a fair record of
response; Teckwin is one (based on a case of two problematical hybrid UV printers in Guatemala). The distributor said that Teckwin sent
a second printer at their own expense and sent tech support personnel at their expense also. But unfortunately both the hybrid UV
printers are still abandoned in the warehouse of the distributor; they
were still there in January 2009. But Teckwin has the highest rating
of any Chinese company for interest in quality control and realization
that it is not good PR to abandon a client or reseller or distributor all
together.
Recently we have heard many reports of issues of getting parts from
manufacturers in other countries (not Asia). So just because you
printer is made in an industrialized country, if you are in the US and
the manufacturer is X-thousand kilometers or miles away, the wait
may be many days, or weeks.
Lack of Tech Support Personnel is increasing
The recession resulted in tech support issues: some manufacturers
may need to skimp on quality control during a recession, or switch to
cheaper parts suppliers. Plus they are not hiring enough tech support
during a recession. So the bigger and more successful the company,
in some cases the worse these particular problems may be.
Any new compiled printer may take a few months to break in
Any new printer, no matter who the manufacturer, or how good is the
engineering ane electronics, will tend to have teething issues. Until
the firmware is updated, you may be a beta tester. This does not
mean the printer should be avoided, just realize that you may have
some downtime and a few headaches. Of course the worst case sce-
Several years ago many UV printers made in China and some made
elsewhere in Asia had counterfeit parts. No evaluation has the funding available to check parts inside any printer to see if they are from
the European, Japanese, or American manufacturer, or if they are a
clever counterfeits.
Be realistic and aware that not all materials can be printed on
equally well
Many materials don’t feed well through hybrid (pinch roller on grit
roller systems) or combo UV systems (with transport belts). Banding,
both from poor feeding, and from bi-directional (lawnmower effect)
are common on many UV-curable inkjet printers.
It is typical for some enthusiastic vendors to claim verbally that their
printer can print on anything and everything. But once you unpack the
printer and set it up, you find that it requires primer on some materials;
on other materials it adheres for a few weeks but then falls off.
And on most hybrid and many combo printers, some heavy, thick,
or smooth-surfaced materials skew badly. Since the claim that the
printer will print on everything is usually verbal, it is tough to prove
this aspect of misleading advertising to a jury.
Not all inks can print on all materials. And at a trade show, many of
the materials you see so nicely printed on, the manufacturer may be
adding a primer at night or early in the morning: before you see the
machine printing on this material.
We feel that the pros and cons of each product speak more than
adequately for themselves. Just position the ad claims on the left: put
the actual performance results on the right. The unscrupulous hype
for some printers is fairly evident rather quickly.
Be sure to check all FLAAR resources
Please realize that with over 200 different FLAAR Reports on UV
printers, you need to be sure to check the more obscure ones too.
If a printer has a printhead issue, the nitty gritty of this may be in the
FLAAR Report on printheads. The report on the model is a general
introduction; if we discussed the intimate details of printheads then
some readers might fall asleep. And obviously do not limit yourself
to the free reports. The technical details may be in the reports that
have a price to them. Our readers have said they prefer to have the
general basics, and to park the real technical material in other reports
that people can buy if they really want that level of information.
So it may be best to ask for personal consulting. The details of the
problems with the ColorSpan 5400uv series are rather complex:
namely the center row of the Ricoh printheads. This would require an
expensive graphic designer and consultants to show the details. And
the design of the printhead would probably be altered by the time we
did any of this anyway. So it is essential to talk with people: with other
end-users, and with FLAAR in person on a consulting basis.
Acknowledgements
With 19 employees the funding has to come from somewhere, so we
do welcome project sponsorship, research grants, contributions that
facilitate our educational programs, scholarships for co-op interns
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and graduate students, and comparable project-oriented funding
from manufacturers. The benefit for the end-user is a principle called
academic freedom, in this case,
• The freedom of a professor or student to speak out relative
to the pros and cons of any equipment brought to them to
benchmark.
•The freedom to design the research project without outside
meddling from the manufacturer.
Fortunately, our budget is lean and cost effective as you would expect
for a non-profit research institute. As long as we are not desperate for
money we can avoid the temptation to accept payment for reprinting
corporate PR hype. So the funding is used for practical research. We
do not accept (nor believe) and certainly do not regurgitate corporate
PR. For example, how many manufacturer’s PR photos of their products have you seen in our reports or on our web sites?
Besides, it does not take any money to see which printers and RIPs
function as advertised and which don’t. We saw one hyped printer
grind to a halt, malfunction, or otherwise publicly display its incapabilities at several trade shows in a row. At each of those same trade
shows another brand had over 30 of their printers in booths in virtually every hall, each one producing museum quality exhibits. Not our
fault when we report what we see over and over and over again. One
of our readers wrote us recently, “Nicholas, last month you recommended the …… as one of several possible printers for our needs;
we bought this. It was the best capital expenditure we have made in
the last several years. Just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate your evaluations….”
FLAAR is a non-profit educational and research organization dedicated for over 36 years to professional photography in the arts, tropical flora and fauna, architectural history, and landscape panorama
photography.
Our digital imaging phase is a result of substantial funding in 1996
from the Japanese Ministry of Public Education for a study of scanning and digital image storage options. This grant was via Japan’s
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. That same year
FLAAR also received a grant of $100,000 from an American foundation to do a feasibility study of digital imaging in general and the
scanning of photographic archives in particular.
The FLAAR web sites began initially as the report on the results of
these studies of scanners. Once we had the digital images we began
to experiment with digital printers. People began to comment that our
reports were unique and very helpful. So by 1999 we had entire sections on large format printers.
FLAAR has existed since 1969, long before inkjet printers existed.
Indeed we were writing about digital imaging before HP even had
a color inkjet system available. In 2000 FLAAR received an educational grant from Hewlett-Packard large format division, Barcelona,
Spain, for training, for equipment, and to improve the design and
navigation on the main web sites of the FLAAR Network. This grant
ran its natural course, and like all grants, reached its finishing point,
in this case late 2005.
In some cases the sponsorship process begins when we hear endusers talking about a product they have found to be better than
other brands. We keep our ears open, and when we spot an especially good product, this is the company we seek sponsorship from.
It would not be wise of us to seek sponsorship from a company with
a sub-standard or otherwise potentially defective printer. So we usually know which printers are considered by end-users to be among
35
the better brands before we seek sponsorship. After all, out of the by
now one million readers, we have heard plenty about every single
printer out there.
We thank MacDermid ColorSpan (now part of HP), Hewlett-Packard, Parrot Digigraphic, Color DNA, Canon, Gandinnovations, and
other companies for providing funding for technology training for the
FLAAR staff and our colleagues at Bowling Green State University in
past years and for funds to allow us to attend all major international
trade shows, which are ideal locations for us to gather information.
We thank Caldera, EskoArtwork, EFI Rastek, EFI and VUTEk, OTF
(Obeikan), Drytac DigiFab, Barbieri electronic, Seiko II, Parrot Digigraphic, AT Inks, Sepiax inks, Sam-Ink, Dilli, Grapo, and WP Digital
for providing funds so that we can make more of our publications free
to end-users. During 2000-2001 we had grants to cover all the costs
of our publications, and all FLAAR Reports were free in those early
years. As that early grant naturally expired after a few years, we had
to begin charging for some of our reports to cover costs. Now (in
2010), we are seeking corporate sponsorship so we can gradually
make another 20% of our publications free to our readers.
Since 2006 we do a major part of our evaluations at a factory and
headquarters demo room. Since the university does not fund any of
these trips, it is traditional for the manufacturer to fund a research
sponsorship. In the US this is how most university projects are initiated for decades now, and it is increasing. In fact there is a university
in Austria that is not an “edu” but is a “GmbH”, funded by the chamber of commerce of that part of Austria. In other words, a university
as an educational institution, but functioning in the real world as an
actual business. This is a sensible model, especially when FLAAR
staff need to be on the road over a quarter of a million miles per year
(roughly over 400,000 km per year total for the staff). Obviously this
travel is hosted since unless money falls from heaven there most
realistic way to obtain funding to get to the demo rooms for training
is direct from the source.
It has been helpful when companies make it possible for us to fly
to their headquarters so we can inspect their manufacturing facilities, demo rooms, and especially when the companies make their
research, engineering and ink chemistry staff available for discussions. When I received my education at Harvard I was taught to have
a desire to learn new things. This has guided my entire life and is
what led me into wide-format digital imaging technology: it is constantly getting better and there is a lot to learn every month. Thus I
actively seek access to improving my understanding of wide format
printer technology so that we can better provide information to the
approximately quarter-million+ readers of our solvent and UV printer
web site (www.large-format printers.org) and the over half a million
who read either our wide-format-printers.org site or our roughly half
million combined who read our digital-photography.org and www.
FineArtGicleePrinters.org sites.
Barbieri electronic (color management), Caldera (RIP), ColorSpan,
DEC, Durst, EFI, EskoArtwork, Gerber, Grapo, IP&I, Mimaki USA,
Mutoh, Obeikan, Dilli, Drytac, GCC, NUR, Oce, Shiraz (RIP), Sky
AirShip, Sun, Teckwin, VUTEk, WP Digital, Xerox, Yuhan-Kimberly,
Zund have each brought FLAAR staff to their headquarters and
printer factories. AT Inks, Bordeaux, InkWin, Sepiax, Sam-Ink, and
Sunflower ink have brought us to inspect their ink manufacturing facilities and demo rooms. Notice that we interact with a wide range of
companies: it is more helpful to our readers when we interact with
many different companies rather than just one.
We have visited the world headquarters and demo rooms of HP in
Barcelona and received informative and helpful technology briefings
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
from HP about every two years. We are under NDA as to the subjects discussed but it is important that we be open where we have
visited. Mimaki Europe has had FLAAR as their guest in Europe to
introduce their flatbed UV printer, as have other UV-curable manufacturers, again, under NDA as to the details since often we are present at meetings where unreleased products are discussed. Xaar has
hosted an informative visit to their world headquarters in the UK. You
don’t get this level of access from a trade magazine writer, and I can
assure you, we are provided much more detailed information and
documentation in our visits than would be provided to a magazine
author or editor. Companies have learned that it’s a lot better to let us
know up front and in advance the issues and glitches with their printers, since they now know we will find out sooner or later on our own.
They actually tell us they realize we will find out on our own anyway.
Contributions, grant, sponsorships, and project funds from these
companies are also used to improve the design and appearance of
the web sites of the FLAAR Information Network. We thank Canon,
ColorSpan, HP, ITNH, and Mimaki for providing wide format printers,
inks, and media to the universities where FLAAR does research on
wide format digital imaging. We thank Epson America for providing
an Epson 7500 printer many years ago, and Parrot Digigraphic for
providing access to their digital equipment, also for providing three
different models of Epson inkjet printers to our facilities on loan at
BGSU (5500, 7600, 7800). We thank Mimaki USA for providing a JV4
and then a Mimaki TX-1600s textile printer and Improved Technologies (ITNH) providing their Ixia model of the Iris 3047 giclee printer.
We thank 3P Inkjet Textiles and HP for providing inkjet textiles so we
could learn about the different results on the various textiles. IJ Technologies, 3P Inkjet Textiles, ColorSpan, Encad, HP, Nan Ya Pepa,
Oracal, Tara and other companies have provided inkjet media so we
can try it out and see how it works (or not as the case may be; several
inkjet media failed miserably, one from Taiwan, the other evidently
from Germany!). We thank Aurelon, Canon, ColorGate, ColorSpan,
ErgoSoft, HP, PerfectProof, PosterJet, Onyx, Ilford, CSE ColorBurst,
ScanvecAmiable, Wasatch and many other RIP companies for providing their hardware and software RIPs.
We thank Dell Computers for providing awesome workstations for
testing RIP software and content creation with Adobe Photoshop and
other programs. We also appreciate the substantial amount of software provided by Adobe. As with other product loaned or provided
courtesy of ProVar LLC (especially the 23” monitors which makes it
so much easier to work on multiple documents side by side).
We thank Betterlight, Calumet Photographic, Global Graphics, Westcott, Global Imaging Inc. Phase One, and Bogen Imaging for helping
to equip our archaeological photo studios at the university and its
archaeology museum in Guatemala. Heidelberg, Scitex, CreoScitex (now Kodak) and Cruse, both in Germany, have kindly provided
scanners for our staff to evaluate.
We really liked some of the results whereas some of the other products were a bit disappointing. Providing samples does not influence
the evaluations because the evaluators are students, professors,
and staff of Bowling Green State University. These personnel are not
hired by any inkjet printer company; they were universities employees (as was also true for Nicholas Hellmuth). The testing person for
the HP ColorPro (desktop printer) said he frankly preferred his Epson
printer. When we saw the rest results we did not include this HewelttPackard ColorPro printer on our list of recommended printers, but we
love our HP DesignJet 5000ps so much we now have two of them,
one at each university.
36
Sometimes we hear horror stories about a printer. The only way
we can tell whether this is the fault of the printer design, or lack of
training of the operator, is to have the printer ourselves in-house. Of
course some printer manufacturers don’t understand the reasons we
need to have each make and model; they are used to loaning their
demo units for a week or so. That is obviously inadequate for a serious review.
Some of the media provided to us failed miserably. Three printers
failed to meet common sense usability and printability standards as
well (HP 1055, one older desktop model (HP Color Pro GA), and
one Epson). Yet we know other users who had better results; maybe
ours came down the assembly line on a Monday or Friday afternoon,
when workers were not attentive. One costly color management software package was judged “incapable” by two reviewers (one from
the university; second was an outside user who had made the mistake of buying this package).
So it’s obvious that providing products or even a grant is no shield
from having your products fail a FLAAR evaluation. The reason is
clear: the end user is our judge. The entire FLAAR service program
is to assist the people who need to use digital imaging hardware and
software. If a product functions we find out and promulgate the good
news. If a product is a failure, or more likely, needs some improvement in the next generation, we let people know. If a product is hyped
by what an informed user would recognize as potentially false and
misleading nonsense, then we point out the pathetic discrepancies
very clearly.
This is what you should expect from an institute which is headed by
a professor.
Actually, most of our reviews are based on comments by end users.
We use their tips to check out pros and cons of virtually every product
we discuss. You can’t fool a print shop owner whose printer simply
fails to function as advertised. And equally, a sign shop owner who
earns a million dollars a year from a single printer brand makes an
impact on us as well. We have multiple owners of ColorSpan printers
tell us that this printer is their real money earner for example. We
know other print shops where their primarily income is from Encad
printers. Kinkos has settled on the HP 5000 as its main money maker
production machine, and so on.
Yet we have documentation of several print shop companies whose
business was ruined by specific brands that failed repeatedly. It is
noteworthy that it is always the same brand or printer at both locations: one due to banding and printheads then simply no longer printing one color; the other brand due to pokiness of the printer simply
not being competitively fast enough. Same with RIPs, we have consistent statements of people using one RIP, and only realizing how
weak it was when they tried another brand which they found substantially better. Thus we note that companies which experiment with
more than one brand of product tend to realize more quickly which
brand is best. This is where FLAAR is in an ideal situation: we have
nine RIPs and 25 printers. Hence it is logical that we have figured out
which are best for our situation.
Grant funding, sponsorship, demonstration equipment, and training
are supplied from all sides of the spectrum of printer equipment and
software engineering companies. Thus, there is no incentive to favor
one faction over another. We receive support from three manufacturers of thermal printheads (Canon, ColorSpan and HP) and also have
multiple printers from three manufacturers of piezo printers (Epson,
Seiko, Mutoh, and Mimaki). This is because piezo has definite advantage for some applications; thermal printheads have advantages
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
in different applications. Our reviews have universal appeal precisely
because we feature all competing printhead technologies. Every
printer, RIPs, inks, or media we have reviewed have good points in
addition to weaknesses. Both X-Rite and competitor GretagMacbeth
provided spectrophotometers. Again, when all sides assist this program there is no incentive to favor one by trashing the other. Printer
manufacturer ad campaigns are their own worst enemy. If a printer
did not make false and misleading claims, then we would have nothing to fill our reviews with refuting the utter nonsense that is foisted
on the buying public.
It is not our fault if some printers are more user friendly, print on
more media than other brands. It is not our fault that the competing
printers are ink guzzlers, are slow beyond belief, and tend to band or
drop out colors all together. We don’t need to be paid by the printer
companies whose products work so nicely in both our universities on
a daily basis. The printers which failed did so in front of our own eyes
and in the print shops of people we check with. And actually we do
try to find some redeeming feature in the slow, ink gulping brands:
they do have a better dithering pattern; they can take thick media
that absolutely won’t feed through an HP. So we do work hard at
finding the beneficial features even of printers are otherwise get the
most critique from our readers. Over one million people will read the
FLAAR Information Network in the next 12 months; 480,000 people
will be exposed to our reports on wide format printers from combined
total of our three sites on these themes. You can be assured that we
hear plenty of comments from our readers about which printers function, and which printers fail to achieve what their advertising hype so
loudly claims.
An evaluation is a professional service, and at FLAAR is based on
more than 11 years of experience. An evaluation of a printer, an ink,
media, substrate, a software, laminator, cutter or whatever part of the
digital printing workflow is intended to provide feedback to all sides.
The manufacturers appreciate learning from FLAAR what features
of their printers need improvement. In probably half the manufacturers FLAAR has dealt with, people inside the company did not,
themselves, want to tell their boss that their pet printer was a dog.
So printer, software, and component manufacturers have learned
that investing in a FLAAR evaluation of their product provides them
with useful return on investment. Of course if a printer manufacturer
wants only a slick Success Story, or what we call a “suck up review”
that simply panders to the manufacturer, obviously FLAAR is not a
good place to dare to ask for such a review. In several instances it
was FLAAR Reports that allowed a company to either improve their
printer, or drop it and start from scratch and design a new and better
one.
And naturally end-users like the opportunity to learn about various
printers from a single source that covers the entire range from UV
through latex through all flavors of solvent.
We have also learned that distributors often prefer to accept for distribution a printer or other product on which a FLAAR Report already
exists.
We turn down offers of funding every year. These offers come from
PO Box enterprises or products with no clearly visible point of manufacture. Usually the company making the offer presumes they can
buy advertising space just by paying money. But that is not what our
readers want, so we politely do not accept such offers of money.
Contributions, grants, sponsorships, and funding for surveys, studies
and research is, however, open to a company who has an accepted
standing in the industry. It is helpful if the company has a visible pres-
37
ence at leading trade shows and can provide references from both
end users and from within the industry. Where possible we prefer
to visit the company in person or at least check them out at a trade
show. Obviously the product needs to have a proven track record too.
Competing companies are equally encouraged to support the FLAAR
system. We feel that readers deserve to have access to competing
information. Competition is the cornerstone of American individualism and technological advancement.
FLAAR also covers its costs of maintaining the immense system of 8
web sites in three languages and its facilities in part by serving as a
consultant such as assisting inkjet manufacturers learn more about
the pros and cons of their own printers as well as how to improve
their next generation of printers. It is especially useful to all concerned when manufacturers learn of trends (what applications are
popular and for what reasons). For example, manufacturers need to
know whether to continue designing software for Mac users, or concentrate software for PC users. So the survey form that you fill out is
helpful to gather statistics. You benefit from this in two ways: first, you
get the FLAAR reports in exchange for your survey form. Second,
your comments bring (hopefully) change and improvement in the
next generation of printers. When we do survey statistics, then the
names, addresses, and telephone numbers are removed completely.
A survey wants only aggregate numbers, not individuals. However, if
you ask about a specific brand of printer, and do not opt out, we forward your request to a pertinent sponsor so you can obtain follow-up
from that brand, since we ourselves do not have enough personnel
to respond to each reader by telephone. But we do not provide your
personal information to outsiders and our survey form has an opt out
check-off box which we honor.
FLAAR also serves as consultants to Fortune 500 companies as
well as smaller companies and individuals who seek help on which
printers to consider when they need digital imaging hardware and
software.
A modest portion of our income comes from our readers who purchase the FLAAR series. All income helps continue our tradition of
independent evaluations and reviews of inkjet printers, RIPs, media,
inks, cutters, laminators, and color management systems.
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
These are some of the most
Recent FLAAR Reports (2008-2010)
You can find these and more reports at: www.wide-format-printers.NET
Introduction to UV Curable Inkjet Flatbed Printers
Most recent UV Printers
38
HP Designjet L65500
Latex Ink Printer Evaluation
These are some of the most
Recent FLAAR Reports (2008-2010)
You can find these and more reports at: www.wide-format-printers.NET
Comments on UV Inkjet Printers at Major Trade Shows 2007-2009
UV Printers Manufactured in China, Korea and Taiwan
39